Wednesday, 24 July 2013

Diesel Electric Locomotives

By Herb Nolan.

The Rhodesian Railways were in negotiations with a British manufacture of diesel
electric locomotives at the time of UDI thus severing any further negotiation.
The existing locomotives were very old and a new source had to be found. I
believe the Rhodesian Government approached Rio Tinto and asked them to explore
the possibility of obtaining new locomotives from different sources.
Ralph Cockerill headed up a team to investigate other builders of locomotives.
They went to Japan, France, Germany and other European manufactures.
The main obstacle in these negotiations was to bypass sanctions, the most
favorable manufacturer was in Germany.

Rio Tinto formed a company called Penahlonga Development Co with head office in
Salisbury and the factory in Norton. They company chosen in Germany was Jung who
were located near the town of Betsdorf about 120 kilometers east of Cologne.
Jung also made the Leopard Tank used by NATO
forces.

I was working for The Central African Power Corp (CAPCO) in Kariba in 1971, a
friend of mine who worked for Rio Tinto asked me if I would be interested in
a position as Foreman of a fabrication shop with Rio. I was subsequently interviewed
and offered the position and told I would have to spend a few months in
Germany learning how to build a locomotive. All of this took place after I had
signed the Official Secrets Act.
I was introduced to my Boss Peter Sacchi who was to head up the project in
Norton. Peter had worked for the Rhodesian Railways and had extensive experience
in the making of diesel electric locomotives. We were to travel to Germany
together. A major problem was Peter could only obtain a Rhodesian Passport which
was not recognized because of sanctions, he was able to travel to South Africa
and Switzerland but that was all. We flew to Johannesburg on SAA then to Zurich
on SwissAir where we were met by Andrew the Project accountant and a Swiss
gentleman whose name escapes me. We spent the night in Zurich, the next morning
we motored to the German boarder with the Swiss gentleman. We crossed the
boarder at Lake Constance, the Swiss gentleman telling the guard that we were
only going for the day, he dropped the three of us where we rented a car and
drove to Essen and met Ralph. The next day we motored to Jung and met the Jung
people whom we were to work with. The man who had designed the Leopard tank,
Paul Dhiel had also designed our Locomotive.

We went to work immediately, Peter to the design office and me to the factory
floor where no English was spoken! I had to take a crash course in German if I
was to learn anything. The factory workers were very helpful and I was soon able
to converse with them in a pigeon mish mash. The plan was to build the first
loco in Germany which was to be shipped to South Africa where it was ostensibly
to be shown to the SAR with the hope of them placing a purchase order, however,
it would eventually find its way into Rhodesia thereby bypassing sanctions. I
forgot to mention that the time frame of all the above happenings was October
1971. By December most of the work on the main frame and bogies had been
completed and it was time for me to go back and start work on the the first
locomotive to be built in Rhodesia.

Somewhere in communications between Jung and our design office the
specifications for the crane in the fabrication shop got mixed up and it was
found that the crane in the building we were to use was too small, we had to do
extensive alterations to the crane to beef it up so that it would be able to
make the lifts. Many more major and minor problems associated with a project of
this magnitude were found and had to be solved, I had the feeling that any step
forward was erased and we had moved two steps back!! The one problem was
shortage of skilled tradesmen, we made a number of trips to South Africa to
recruit men. The biggest problem we encountered was some of the engineering work
had been farmed out to a number of firms in and around the Salisbury area, as
the scheduled date arrived we were informed they were not able to complete the
job because of the very tight specifications. Another Andrew, our design
engineer ( Andrew was a brilliant engineer) designed a complicated bending press
capable of bending the 3/4" steel plate to the specs, the press then had to be
built, thus putting us further behind. The Mechanical and Electrical departments
also had their problems though nothing as bad as the fabrication depot because
the engine and electrics arrived complete from Germany.

The first unit was finally complete and tested and delivered with great sighs of
relief, however our problems were not over. When the locomotive is traveling
down hill, the driver bunches the train and the traction motors become
generators, all the power generated has to be dissipated to a bank of resistors
which in turn must be cooled by the traction motor blowers. The designed system
worked perfectly in Europe but in Africa the water from one of our heavy rains
was too much for the blowers to handle, thus the resistor banks shorted out.
So it was back to the drawing board where a solution was designed and built.

The time was now 1974 and our family had planned a trip to the USA to visit my
wife's sister who was in Los Angeles. During our visit an interview was arranged
with a large engineering firm, I went for the interview and was offered a
position as Project Engineer working on the design of a large copper mine in
Iraq. I did not return to Rhodesia and so I never saw the completion of the
contract.

Although I was working in the Cabinet Office from 1965 to 1972, and then from 1976 to 1978, I was totally unaware of this remarkable operation. And though Peter Sacchi was my brother-in-law (his wife, Lucy, was my first wife's sister), I didn't even know he was back in Rhodesia from RSA to which he emigrated in about 1958.

After surprises like this, I would much appreciate joining ORAFS, despite having no Air Force connections. I served in three armies, British Army (Royal Engineers) 1942 - 44, Indian Army (Madras Regt.) 1944 - 1947, and Rhodesian Army (Rhod. Intelligence Corps) 1972 - 1980.

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